Many of us might have to think long and hard to remember the apex of our professional careers, but Adam Loewen can pinpoint the exact moment of his.

It was seven years ago, on March 8, when the highest-drafted Canadian in major league history was 21 years old and shut out the Americans for 3-2/3 innings in the second game of the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

For those fleeting minutes, the 6-6 pitcher from Surrey was made even larger than life by his brilliance in the WBC spotlight. Canada’s eventual 8-6 victory, over a team that included Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Ken Griffey Jr., Chase Utley and Jason Varitek, was referred to by New York Times baseball writer Murray Chass as “The Miracle on Grass.”

“They were major league all-stars, guys I grew up watching,” Loewen recalled this week from Dunedin, Fla., where he is working out with the Toronto Blue Jays’ farmhands. “That’s why it was so amazing and memorable to me. The whole time I was pitching, I was in awe of the players I was pitching against. I was just so young. It was overwhelming, and awesome at the same time.”

Change of plans

Over the years, Loewen has had many opportunities to savour those electrifying moments at Chase Field in Phoenix because he is an example of how easily things can go wrong in baseball.

More than one can’t-miss career has been altered by bad bounces, mundane mishaps and freak injuries. In the case of Loewen, the fourth overall pick in the 2002 MLB draft by the Baltimore Orioles, two stress fractures to his left elbow spelled his doom as a major-league hurler. He was 8-8 in 35 career appearances before he was shut down. Permanently.

“It was over in a blink, but I had a lot of fun,” Loewen remarked.

Yet the true test of an individual’s love for his craft is his willingness to endure the drudgery it involves to get better. Today, as a reborn right-fielder, trying to make the long, steep, some would say, impossible climb back to the majors as a position player, Loewen inspires awe of a different sort than he once did as an erstwhile flame thrower.

“Adam was on a level by himself when he was drafted,” said Jimmy VanOstrand. “He was pretty special then and he still is. He made it to the big leagues as a pitcher. Then he got back there as a hitter (Loewen had 32 plate appearances for the Blue Jays in 2011). Only a handful of players can say they’ve done that. He’s an unbelievable athlete. And it’s mind-boggling to me how he’s advanced as a hitter.”

Loewen, who played with the Whalley Chiefs, and VanOstrand, a Richmond, B.C., native who came up through the North Delta Blue Jays organization, are two of the major reasons Canada has qualified again for the World Baseball Classic, a 16-team global tournament that could be the game’s greatest event, dwarfed only by the World Series itself.

In the absence of Canadian major-leaguers still involved in the MLB season, the two minor-league journeymen tore the cover off the ball in a qualifying tournament last September in Regensburg, Germany, against Britain and the host country. Loewen hit .500 in three games while VanOstrand, a Washington Nationals’ farmhand, batted .538 with four homers.

By pummeling the British and the Germans, twice, Canada advanced to Pool D of the World Baseball Classic, a group that includes the U.S., Italy and Mexico.

The group-play round held in Arizona is one of four around the globe — Japan, Taiwan and Puerto Rico are the others. First pitch goes this Saturday, in Fukuoka, Japan, with the two-time champions, minus Ichiro, Yu Darvish or a single major-league player, opening Pool A play against Brazil. Semifinals and the championship game will be at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, March 17-19.

VanOstrand and Loewen willingly did the heavy lifting in Germany, knowing there was the likelihood they might not play in the WBC itself, once the big names such as Joey Votto (Reds), Justin Morneau (Twins), Brett Lawrie (Blue Jays) and Michael Saunders (Mariners) are factored into the equation.

Team Canada, a mix of recognized major-leaguers and others still trying to get to The Show, reports for duty Sunday at the Goodyear Sports Complex in Goodyear, Ariz., the spring training facility used by the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians, located about 35 kilometres southwest of Phoenix. Next Friday, Canada makes its WBC debut against Italy at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. Games against Mexico (Saturday) and the U.S. (Sunday) will be played at Chase Field, in downtown Phoenix.

Canada’s roster is short on starting pitching — Scott Diamond (Twins), Ryan Dempster (Red Sox), Erik Bedard (Pirates) and Jeff Francis (Rockies) are unavailable because of injury or settling-in commitments to their new major-league clubs.

But the relief pitching is strong — John Axford (Brewers) and Jesse Crain (White Sox) — as is the power potential. Morneau and Votto are former American League and National League MVPs, respectively, while Saunders, a native of Victoria, had 19 home runs and 21 stolen bases last year with Seattle.

The decision by major league all-star catcher Russell Martin to pull out last Sunday, however, was a blow and uncharacteristic of a Canadian team that has many moments of intensely shared camaraderie through junior, Pan American Games, Olympic, World Cup and previous WBC competition.

“It’s a little bit of a disappointment not to have the best possible team Canada could have, on paper, but it’s just the nature of the timing of the tournament and different situations guys are in with their professional organizations,” VanOstrand explained. “Every country is in the same boat.”

Ballplayers are, temperamentally, individualists in a game that pivots around one-on-one confrontations between pitcher and hitter. But Japan, which won the WBC in its two previous editions (2006, 2009), relies on solidarity, collective action and “team flow.” Monomania is also an element distinctly lacking in the archetype Canadian baseball player.

“There’s a bunch of us trying to break on to the major-league stage, and some others who are very top-end guys, but it’s absolutely a family-type atmosphere,” VanOstrand said. “The big thing we have going for us is that we generally like each other as people. Justin (Morneau) has an MVP trophy to his credit, but he goes out of his way to make everybody feel comfortable and important. The success of our national senior teams has been attributed to that. We hang out together. We’re close.”

“Canadian ballplayers, there’s not too many of us,” added Tyson Gillies, an outfielder in the Phillies chain (AAA Lehigh Valley) who played senior baseball with the Langley Blaze.

“That was one thing that struck me in Germany — the bond that a lot of these players have with each other. It’s always exciting when you find out there’s another Canadian playing (at the minor league or major league level) in a game. You go up and introduce yourself. It’s pretty special. I haven’t been part of a group that cared so much for each other, when you’re playing for the Maple Leaf. It’s definitely different.”

VanOstrand, a 28-year-old first baseman who played at the AA level with the Harrisburg Senators of the Eastern League last season, has, irrespective of his minor-league credentials, produced some vivid moments for Canada in international baseball. Besides his boffo hitting performance last September in Germany, he drove in the only two runs needed to beat the U.S., 2-1, to win gold at the 2011 Pan-American Games. It was Canada’s first gold in a competition that had been dominated by Cuba for 40 years.

Further proof that baseball in this country is getting better and better was the silver medal picked up last year in the under-18 world championship in Seoul, South Korea.

VanOstrand also played in the 2008 Olympics (Canada finished sixth) and in the 2009 World Cup, when he was part of Canada’s bronze medal-winning squad, along with Loewen, Lawrie, outfielder Rene Tosoni of Coquitlam (Brewers, AA) and pitcher Trystan Magnuson of Vancouver (Blue Jays, AA). All five are members of the 2013 WBC team. Brewers’ utility infielder Taylor Green (Comox) and outfielder Gillies (Kamloops) are also on the preliminary roster.

“I’ve never turned down an invitation to play for Team Canada, and I never will,” Loewen said. “It’s something I love to do, and a lot of our guys feel that way. Jimmy is the same. He’s a different player when he has the words ‘Canada’ across his chest. It makes him better.

“Anybody who’s played with him before knows he’s a very, very clutch player and a leader in the dugout. He gets players pumped.”

VanOstrand estimates that “about 30” relatives and friends from the Vancouver area will be in Phoenix next week to see him play, yet there is no guarantee he’ll get to step into the on-deck circle. Votto and Morneau play the same position — first base — although Votto hasn’t made a final decision whether he’ll play for Team Canada because of concerns from a pair of knee surgeries last season. The Reds aren’t allowing 19-game winner Johnny Cueto to play for the Dominican Republic, and they’re squeamish about putting Votto at risk in full, nine-inning games.

Still, Votto or no Votto, it remains a possibility that VanOstrand could be turned into a WBC wallflower, despite his role in getting Canada to the big dance.

“They’re (Votto and Morneau) two of the best left-handed hitters in all of baseball,” he said. “We’ll see how it all plays out. If they ask me to come off the bench, or in whatever role I’m used, I’m all for doing what works and gives us the best chance to win.

“Regardless of the resume that each of us brings to the table, playing for Canada is pretty special. With everybody pulling for each other, we have a good chance for success.”

As one who speaks from recent Canadian baseball experience, he might be right.

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